'Sherlock's' Lara Pulver on Irene Adler's sensuality and Jude Law (he's a fan)

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“I actually just met Jude Law,” says Lara Pulver when Zap2it catches up with the actress just days before her guest-starring role as Irene Adler in the PBS presentation of the BBC’s “Sherlock” is set to debut in the U.S.

“He said, ‘I’m in the action Sherlock and you’re in the clever Sherlock.”

Law, of course, plays Doctor Watson to Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie’s big-screen version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s books. And while the setting is authentic — Victorian London — Ritchie’s version is an action movie masquerading as a mystery.

In the BBC version, which returns to PBS on Sunday, May 6 to start a 3-episode arc, the story is — even though set in modern-day London — much more faithful to Conan’s source material. Well, as interpreted by showrunner Steven Moffat (“Dr. Who”). The reedy Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Watson.

Pulver, who played Sookie Stackhouse’s fairy godmother on “True Blood,” is currently winding up a stage run of Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya” in New York. She says she didn’t take any cues from Rachel McAdams’ big-screen version of Irene Adler when prepping for the role.

“I hadn’t seen the movie,” she says. “I was interested in going on my research of Conan Doyle and what Stephen had written on the page. It was so three-dimensional. “I’d like to think that she’s one of a kind because I think that Benedict’s Sherlock is one of a kind. It’s a remarkable piece of TV — very dark and very sensual.”

So what’s next for Pulver after “Vanya?” More TV, it turns out.

“[I’m] dipping my toe back into two television series — both U.S. network television projects.”

Estabished shows or pilots?

“Yes and no,” she tells us. “Two very very different projects. I don’t want to spoil anything, but you’ll know in a few days.”